Chairman Arrington Calls Out “Intellectual Dishonesty” by Democrats on COVID-era Obamacare Subsidies, Urges Passage of Real Reforms
WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) today delivered remarks on the House floor slamming the Democrats’ proposal to extend COVID-era subsidies for insurance companies as a “con job” that doubles down on the very policies in Obamacare that made health care unaffordable in the first place.
Watch the full interview HERE
Remarks as delivered:
Thank you, Speaker. My friend from Massachusetts talked about not seeing the Republican bill. We had a bipartisan provision in there that would lower premiums by 11% per the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan CBO. This is a provision that you all supported. You all know we have to make the Obamacare market work. It doesn't work today. The facts belie that: doubled premiums, doubled deductibles. One out of five claims rejected. Limited choice. It has failed. That experiment has failed. The only game in town that has actually lowered cost of health care—reduced premiums—is what Republicans passed out of the House. We didn't get a single Democrat to join us.
Here's what I can't understand for the life of me. I have some good friends over there. I'm not mad. I'm miffed that you all would talk about affordability in health care and bring to this chamber the idea—the notion—that you take a COVID-era program that you all designed to expire when COVID was over—that every watchdog group has said is loaded with fraud and waste. As the Chairman said, Social Security numbers from tens-of-thousands of dead people siphoning money out of the taxpayer pocket, away from the vulnerable, and enriching insurance companies. Millions of ineligible people. Billions of fraud.
People are watching what's going on across the country, especially in Minnesota. How could you, in good faith, call this affordable health care and stewardship of the sacred treasure of our fellow Americans?
We have a plan. It works. It's not perfect. There are some things we can work together on. But for the love of God and country, please. It's intellectually dishonest to tell the American people that this COVID-era, fraud-ridden program is somehow going to make health care affordable any more than the underlying bill itself, Obamacare, which everyone knows, hasn't.
I said last time. I'll say it again. Ronald Reagan was spot on: ‘Government is not the solution. Government is the problem,’ and this is a case study for that.
We need less mandates, less taxes, less regulations. And we need more freedom, more choice, more competition. We're willing to work with you, but this is beyond the pale, and it's audacious to call it affordable health care.
I'm amazed, I'm surprised, and I encourage my colleagues to roundly—soundly—stand firm and reject it. And no Republican should ever support this. They didn't support Obamacare when it was designed. They shouldn't support doubling down on a failed policy. And I encourage them not to begin now. I yield back.
